Narrating Contagion and Conceptualizing Humanity: Differences in Plague Narratives by Defoe and Shelley

Abstract

Male narrators of the plague in Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year and Shelley’s The Last Man ruminate about similar concepts, which include aristocratic social systems and politics, as well as stereotypical perspectives of Eastern cultures. Despite similarities in focus, the narrators’ views of society differ, reflecting opposing opinions about humanity. To explain why these viewpoints vary so dramatically, processes shaping each narrator’s sense of self are evaluated using Social Identity Theory. In A Journal of the Plague Year, H.F. clearly aligns with the social system he observes, seeking to maintain his status as a wealthy merchant and craftsman. Concerning Lionel from The Last Man, he is never considered a legitimate part of the upper class. His depiction as an outsider makes him feel marginalized, which exposes the injustice of an exclusionary British social elite. When Lionel is left alone due to contagion, he finally realizes that external social relationships cannot define humanity; it is compassion and morality that define what it means to be human. This individualistic view of humanity reveals that the marginalized can empower themselves, thereby transcending injustices driven by socioeconomic, cultural, racial, or gender biases.